Orion
orion7.jpg orion8.JPG orion9.jpg orion4.jpeg orion2.jpg orion1.jpeg orion6.jpg orion11.jpg Geography A jungle kingdom. The inhabitants live primarily off the ground and among the branches of the massive trees. Culture Culture in brief: Humanists- believe in the gods’ existence, but prefer forging their own destinies. While not overtly technological like Pavo and Cepheus, the Orionites do a lot of work with their own hands, be it magic or mechanics or just construction. Orion favors no patron gods but does not disavow belief in them. Many cities are built in harmony with nature, if only because the alternative is getting swallowed by it. The lower levels of the jungle are quite deadly, so only the largest and best protected places penetrate below a certain level of the forest. There are still vast sections of Orion land (especially the deepest parts of the jungle floor) where no human has gone before. Economy: Orionites are self-sufficient for the most part, if only because it's an absolute necessity in all but the largest cities. If a village can't feed themselves, they inevitably fall to the jungle's advance. Orion exports little and imports less. Architecture: Smaller villages are built right into the sides of the great trees, with rope bridges connecting the buildings; medium cities extend farther down into the forest but still do not touch ground. Only the capital city has managed to build its foundation on solid ground, and pays for such luxury with a hellishly difficult defense against the monsters of the forest. Technology level: Moderate. Orionites are hardly backwards when it come to technology, but most villages are not particularly advanced either. Metal is ridiculously rare but tech made from wood can be found in even the smallest village. Said tech tends to be used for defense against the forest, such as auto-locking doors and advanced magical wards. Government: Heavily decentralized. All villages have a leader of their own, who are supposed to report to the capital in turn, but the real power lies at the local level. Young upstarts get pulled into leadership as much as the older and wiser folks do, if only because the dangers of the jungle tend to kill people who aren't fast enough to get the hell away from them. Elemental/Magic affinities: Air & life; defensive magic. Wood. Magic system: For a civilization as practical and hands-on as Orion, it is little surprise that their magic, too, is largely physically based. Most spells require a representation of what will be done prepared before the spell is cast, and though the spells may be drawn or carved, many choose to craft them from wood, bark, or twine to ensure durability and allow for reuse. For example, an Orionite mage has discovered that a small footbridge in his village is breaking, but the materials to fix it can’t be gathered in time to save it. To buy everyone time to get the needed materials, he crafts a spell to levitate the bridge for a short time. He shapes thin pieces of wood into a circle in the wood-tech style, forming the base of his spell. Then he adds an overarching piece of wood, symbolic of the bridge. Beneath it, he places a small carved feather, for flight. Then he lights a fire and lets the smoke from the fire rise up to bathe the circle while saying the proper words. Finally, he brings the circle to the location of the bridge and sets it down, triggering it with a command word that he has decided upon. The spell for levitating the bridge. Well-versed mages who craft their spells with care are able to weave other spells in among the first, attaching them physically to one another. For example, another Orionite mage wishes to make a personal ward of protection, but finds it cumbersome and pointless to haul around a circle large enough to stand in. Instead, she crafts a small wood-tech spell for personal protection, and an extremely small spell for enlargement. She joins the two, and when she prepares the spells arranges it so that they will trigger in order: enlargement and then protection. In this manner, she can grow the circular ward to a large enough size for her to step into and be protected by it. Linked spells. In the case of mages that use twine, the circles are made via a series of knots, creating an appearance much like a spider web. Along the outside, short pieces of twine ending in small circles are left; these are provided for the mage to slip her fingers into, in order to pull the circle taut before using. The symbolic items are actually tied into the web; in the above levitation example, a real feather would be used. A spell of twine. More elaborate spells, like the wood-tech wards that used to guard the walls of Orion’s capital, are by necessity larger, featuring precisely carved pieces that slot into one another, constantly mobile sections, and sections than can be attached or dettached based on what is required of the spell in a particular instance. History King's Year 193: Beastmen invade Orion. The capital, Verde Striga, falls. Orionites are slaughtered en masse. A resistance movement begins practicing guerilla warfare in the jungle. King's Year 194-196: Neighboring Cepheus begins to take in refugees. All kingdoms refuse to provide direct military aid. Diplomatic missions to Canis yield tactics advice, and Pavo's Prince Apple pledges and provides supplies. Monoceros' Princess Tsubasa refuses to assist and urges the Orionites to practice forgiveness. The resistance movement is ongoing. King's Year 197: Beastmen begin diplomatic advances toward Cepheus, and are met with limited success. Most Orionites have relocated to Cephean refugee camps. Many have given up hope of retaking the country. King's Year 198: In the "official" timeline, Ophiuchus delivers an apocalyptic warning, and most able-bodied Orionites effectively disappear, relocating to the new hidden capital, Mos Thorntier, near the Pavo border. Festivals ۞ The Renewal- Long ago, or so the legend goes, the trees in the jungles of Orion’s jungle were of regular size. But the jungle floor even then was covered in creatures of the deadliest nature, and the mortality rate was frightfully high, even by the standards of Orionites. According to the tale, complicated spells were carved and set around the whole of the jungle to lift the people from the ground and its dangers, but there was a flaw in the spell, and the trees continued to grow long past when they should have stopped, becoming the giants that stand today. Each year, in the midst of summer, when the jungle is at its hottest and the air is heavy with moisture, Orion holds the The Renewal, an elaborate ceremony to renew the magic meant to have raised the trees. What began as a legitimate fear that the jungle would wither and fall back to regular size, leaving the Orionites to face the ground once more, has evolved more into a celebration. Every city or village has their own version of the ceremony, held at differing points during the summer, but each matches in the words meant to be spoken during it. As for the festival that accompanies it, some involve meals as elaborate as the village in question is able to provide and prepare, and most include a retelling of the original legend. In Verde Striga, drum music and plucked strings fill the air, and dancers and puppeteers with realistic wood-tech puppets retell the tale. City and village guards can’t leave their posts, but most other Orionites leave the tasks that need accomplishing to be forgotten on this day and focus instead on what they have already. ۞ The Long Night- Despite the name, the Long Night is not held on the winter Solstice, as one might expect. It falls in late autumn and is celebrated over three consecutive nights, the exact dates of which vary from village to village. During this time, it’s said that the dead can hear the living, and stay close to listen to what is said about them. Bonfires are lit at the edges of all settlements on large platforms expressly for the purpose, and drums are sounded during each night, a slow, loud beat that carries on to daybreak, the drummers switching off as needed. It’s said that the sound and light will draw the dead, leading them back to their homes through the often maze-like jungle in which they may have died. Many Orionites visit the bonfires during these nights, casting offerings to the Gentleman into the flames along with requests that their lost loved ones will be looked after. Any Orionite who has slain an enemy is expected to paint his face before he goes out, so that the dead will not recognize him and attempt to take revenge. For many, this is an intensely private festival, spent largely in the home, where one may tell the dead things that were not said while they lived. For others, who do not wish to put their thoughts into words, it is acceptable to write the sentiments on a piece of tree bark and return it to the tree by tucking it between branches. It is supposed that the dead are able to find such messages, and will read what has been written. ۞ The Day of Plenty- In late spring, when the plants of the jungle are vibrant with the renewed warmth of the season and the animals are fat from taking their pick of the fruit in bloom and the young of other creatures, Orionites celebrate the Day of Plenty. The most held-by tradition of the festival takes the form of a large, public feast to which every attending member must contribute. In small villages, it is held on the largest outdoor platform available; in larger cities, it is broken up into smaller events which take place on outdoor platforms in each section of the city. In all cases, the event is held just as daylight begins to fade. The area in which the feast will take place is prepared beforehand, with berry-laden vines cut and brought in to act as streamers along with strings of nuts carefully threaded together; these decorations, as a rule, are always edible and are carefully guarded from squidrats in the time leading up to the feast. The tables are strewn with lush jungle flowers just before the celebration begins, and the area hung with wooden lanterns. The traditional fare comes in the form of tree snakes, which are sliced open, gutted, and stuffed with roots and nuts from the base of the skull to the tip of the tail, then sewn closed and roasted. Other meat is common in the shared dishes presented for the occasion, most notably grakk and gekin, which are generally in the form of stew or dumplings. Snake eggs and bird eggs- and, rarely, raptor eggs- are also well-received, prepared in a variety of manners on their own but also added to soup or mashed and mixed with diced mushrooms to serve as a stuffing for smaller snakes. Desserts take a variety of forms, but fruit pudding or cacao pudding sweetened by jaggary sap or honey is among the most popular. Candied berries and candied roundels on sticks are set aside for the children to bring home with them. Throughout the celebration, the guards are rotated so that everyone is allotted at least part of the time to enjoy the festivities. At the end of the feast, the remnants of the food is divided up and taken home by those in attendance. Smaller villages that traditionally have difficulty providing for themselves hold a fast leading up to the occasion in order to save up enough food for the day. Important Locations ۞ Verde Striga- Orion’s old capital. At ground level, it does not appear to be much larger than a moderately-sized city; making a complete circle of its impressive walls and elaborate wood-tech wards would give one the impression of a place that, while not small, is certainly not a metropolis in terms of scale. Anyone who has been within the city, however, knows that this is deceptive in the extreme, as Verde Striga also extends vertically to the very tops of the massive trees that house it- from the guard stations, provision shops, and canals at the ground level, to the markets nestled within the trunks of the trees, to the hanging farms that are cultivated on thatched wood and accessed by ropes and bridges, to the dangling houses secured within sight of the sky, held in place by a combination of ingenious workmanship and a touch of magic. ۞ Mos Thorntier- Initially, a tiny village up near the Pavo border to the north-east. It escaped the notice of the beastmen due to its extremely hard-to-find location and the thickness of the surrounding jungle, and was evacuated without any of its population killed by the invaders. At the warning from the Oracle, it became a gathering point for the remaining Orionites, who migrated there by route of Pavo and Vulpecula in order to avoid the notice of the beastmen. Since, it has been expanded and fortified with wards in the fashion of the old capital; due to its remote location, it appears to the rest of the world as though the remaining Orionites have vanished. Native Creatures ۞ Gliders - A type of venomous snake that flattens and undulates its body in a twisting motion to fly from one tree to another, or drop on a dangerous predator threatening their territory. Certain Orionites have learned to tame the beasts; they form an aerial corps that fulfills military purposes as well as domestic ones. They make it easier to travel from place to place without having to touch the ground. ۞ Lower grakk - Like it’s Hydra cousin, this reptile is large, venomous and of a general poor temperament to being disturbed. However, it is generally tree dwelling and tends to hunt in lower canopy of the jungle. It’s primary meal are the treeflesh just beneath the bark and some of the thick shelled nuts found in the fronds of the trees. ۞ Bearbees - Lives in great hives deep in the forest. Some villages have managed to tame a hive or two, though the effort usually requires the entire village. ۞ Beebats - Extremely rare. If you're deep enough in the trees to see these, you're way too deep. ۞ Raptors - Pack hunters, usually in 3 or 4. Uncannily intelligent. Eats grakk, Orionites and bearbees. ۞ Tree snakes - Tasty! Constrictors and solitary, they grow up to 12 feet in length. ۞ Lureman - These lurk mostly on the floor of the jungle, although they have been known to pop up in abandoned villages and other upper-level places long-abandoned by humans. Woe be to the traveler who mistakes the light of the lureman for safety. Some villages send young adults to retrieve Lureman lights (which glow even after death) as a rite of passage. ۞ Gekin- (Beauty pet) These six legged, webbed lizards are at home in the high canopies of the Orion jungles as they are in the waters and puddles. The webbing between their limbs snaps out when they jump, allowing them to glide decent distances with a good current of air. They climb, swim and jump with admirable ease, allowing them to avoid the many predators of the wet forest. They prefer a diet of insects, but are not adverse to chewing on plants when the pickings are slim. ۞ Vez ۞ Squidrats - Pests DX The damn things like getting into Orion's precious food stores. ۞ Cidioido beetles- Glossy brown beetles roughly the size of a child’s fist. They feed on moss and leaves, occasionally finding their way uninvited into Orionites’ homes. When crushed and consumed as paste or mixed with hot water to make soup, they have been found to provide relief from fever. They are also the only known antidote to the poisonous mushrooms known as the theriactals. ۞ Beastmen - “Twisted, unnatural mixtures of man and beast, the worst of a mad god's dabbling. Animalistic by their very nature, these creatures had the intellect of a proper high man, but the cruelty and caprice of the low beasts they were twisted with.” They are “a strange race,” that “emerged, stronger, better, faster, more adapted to almost everything, they effortlessly took the country by force.” They are rumored to come from Surgeon. Excerpt from the Surgeon Halloween game, concerning the beastmen: house is ... cozy. A warm fire lights the center of the room from a stone pit carved there. The furniture, rough hewn, perhaps is draped in velvets and silks, making them seem both a comfort and a luxury. A table sits just to the side of the fire and a single chair pushed against it. The woman beacons you to sit, and begins preparing a tea. “Make yourself comfortable, I shall let you on your way as the rains stop.” “I’ve taken with an illness in my childhood... it is long gone, but it left my face a travesty... for visitors... I cover it.” She replies, her head low. She seems to shrink even further, the stoop of her back becoming more pronounced. “Come, eat. Tell me of your wares and your business, travellers.” “... I wish to see my son again... but my mind is feeble though my body stout from work.. The way is held by a riddle and I’ve not guessed it... I tried so many times, the guards now fire upon me should I ask. May the King curse their bones to rot!” She cries, reaching a gloved hand up to wipe at her face. “If you could take me there... I would be in your debt... and I’m sure my dear son will reward you well.” you unravel the riddle, the woman at your side... seems to straighten. Her stooped appearance gives away to a proud, muscular seven feet of figure. She removes the veil, and you can at last see her face. Her skin in pale, almost bluish in hue, her hair is wirely and almost metal... her thick lips spread back, a grin revealing tusks and thick, sharp teeth. “At last... WE BEGIN!” She throws her head back and unleashes a guttural howl... all around her in the jungle, other voices join hers... and the land almost beings to shake as beings... all of them twisted with animalistic features, charge past the barrier, each calling the answer to the riddle like a war cry. A far more human scream answers within the city, sirens and bells begin to toll... and the guards begin to rally... Native Plants ۞ Sisymbri moss- Noxious, foul-smelling moss that will aid most gastric troubles and grows in the damper areas beneath the tree bark. Squeeze to juice and drink the juice for best effects. ۞ Rauw sap- A viscous, yellow-orange liquid collected by drilling a hole into the trunk of the rauw tree and allowing the resulting liquid to drip out into a collection container. When consumed or introduced into the body through a wound, it acts as a strong sedative, causing the affected person to fall into a heavy sleep for several hours or more, dependant upon the dose. ۞ Abling moss- A thick, dark moss that clings to the branches low on the trunks and will, when drunk as a tea, temporarily provide clearness of mind to those short on sleep or troubled by high tension, hysteria, or some forms of insanity. Three to four hours after drinking, its side-effects include cramps, blurred vision, and dizziness. ۞ Velar lichen- A soft, pale green lichen which clings to the underside of branches and occasionally to walls and roofs. If scraped off with a knife it will smell “tangy,” and when applied to bandages will act as an antiseptic. It speeds healing by a day to three days. ۞ Colyt bark- Thin, pale bark that strips off easily when pulled by hand. When peeled from the colyt tree and chewed or boiled to make tea, it relieves pain. ۞ Roundel- A squat, purple fruit approximately the size of a grapefruit which grows high in the branches of the roundel tree. It is slightly sour to taste and can be consumed whole, but for the large pit contained in its firm, crunchy flesh. ۞ Lychee- Small fruits with translucent and fleshy white centers that are covered by a thin, rough, inedible red rind. They grow in lychee trees and are sweet and fragrant. ۞ Jaggary sap- Thick, brown liquid which can be collected by drilling a hole into the trunk of the jaggary tree and allowing the resulting liquid to drip out into a collection container. Sweet even in its original form, it can be made into sugar by boiling it down. ۞ Bemanus- A short, vibrant green plant with long tendrils and broad, flat leaves. They take root in the cracks of tree trunks and on larger branches and thrive there, often regrowing even when cut down. The leaves are edible raw, though slightly bitter; boiled, they are quite palatable and taste vaguely like spinach. ۞ Inee nut- Dark brown nuts the size of a thumbnail that grow in clusters well-hidden by the leaves of the inee tree. Their shell is notoriously hard and takes some effort to crack even with a tool. By grinding the meat of the nut into a fine powder and adding water, a paste can be created which serves as a potent poison. Introduction of this concoction to the blood via a wound causes loss of muscle control and then convulsions; the reaction generally lasts no more than ten minutes for a standard dose, but can be severe. ۞ Cacao tree- A large evergreen tree which bears yellow or orange pod fruits. When broken open, these yield small “beans” which can be crushed to create a delicious paste. ۞ The theriactals- Lumpy yellow polypore mushrooms which cling to the trunks near the forest floor in the places where no light reaches. Consuming any part of them, swallowing the thin liquid that can be juiced from them, or allowing them to contact the eyes or an open wound, results in dizziness, unconsciousness, coma, and then death. Consumption of a cidioido beetle before the last stages of the coma set in is the only known antidote. Affiliated Characters * Alfæt Klivian Category:Countries